Songs that Teach

With my new job as a worship leader and after thinking about my last blog I thought that perhaps I would expound on the whole good writing and bad writing thing. We had a discussion about the lyrics and quite frankly this is great practice to do from time to time. I had another experience similar to the last with the song Jesus Messiah.  I am glad these kind of discussion are happening. Jesus Messiah has a lyric in verse two that says:

The body the bread, the blood the wine
broken and pour out all for love
The whole earth trembles and the veil was torn
Love so amazing
Love so amazing

Now at first glance the verse is totally fine and I would agree even after the second glance that it still is just that, but a pastor friend of mine pointed out that the second line wasn't theologically correct. I immediately knew what he was talking about.

He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” (John 19)

As much as I agree that theologically none of Jesus' bones were broken and that this is actually really important to the fulfillment of scripture prophecies I do not think that is what Chris Tomlin was doing. In other words I have never understood this song to be communicating against scripture. I have always taken it as a a two-fold metaphor.  Let me explain.

The line of the song is as much a reference to the Passover dinner and what will later become our own communion ceremony as it is to the crucifixion. In this this account Jesus referring to himself metaphorically says:

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Mathew 26)

Jesus says the bread is a picture of his body and then he breaks it. We are told to do this in remembrance of him. This brings up a similar issue if we want to be so wooden literal all the time. Would we say to a Pastor when walking through a line at receiving communion "Hey Pastor don't say his body was broken for me, didn't you know that none of Jesus' bones were actually broken?" He would probably just look at you and smile, hopefully, and later refer you to Mathew 26. Also in 1 Corinthians 11 when Paul recounts this story with teaching on how to receive the communion with the community he does say broken for you, some ancient manuscripts do say it that way and some do not, however I do not think Paul misunderstood the theology and made a mistake. So when this episode played out before me I wasn't too worried about the song but I understood the concern. We talked about it and in the end we came to the conclusion that the writing was fine. But this brings us a different issue. 

When we were talking about this I firstly said that I believed that the writing was poetical. In other words I believe that saying the body was broken is an appropriate picture albeit falling terribly short of what actually happened. But it is an apt metaphor that helps us understand the pain and suffering that Jesus went through. Poetical metaphor is simply a realty of musical writing and hopefully we as receivers of the music and lyrics understand this. This is why I don't demand my pastors say "given for you " instead of "broken for you" because honestly they both work. 

During our discussion it was said that music is so memorable that the lyrics should be correct. I would agree with this as well. It if often easier to remember the refrains from the songs sung rather than all the points of the sermon. This is the nature of music and why it can be so powerful. Sing something enough times and you have committed it to memory, when something is committed to memory your mind will go there as a foundation, so wouldn't it be wise if that foundation was a solid one? This is both the privilege and the challenge of any worship leader. To make sure the song selections both builds up in the faith and are true to the word of God. The third area is if they are musically pleasing, but this gets into many personal preferences and we have already gone that route before. Worship Wars

This is a task that I take seriously, the songs should be him focused not us focused. This can be difficult at times whereas songs sometimes are singing about God based on what he has done for us so the the cross-over is inevitable. But the question is where is the song going? Is it going towards offering honor and glory to him or is it more reflecting on how it makes us feel? This is a good question to ask as are all questions because we always have to come back to the goal. Honoring God. Because of the nature of music and the imprinting on our memories it can and often does develop into our theological understanding, people often just assume that the words in church songs are Biblically true. 

While I would try to teach away from this practice of relying on the songs to teach us, frankly, they do have a point. The songs we sing should reflect the truths of the Bible but we have to understand that there is a place for poetical license. Writers should be able to write poetically (this is how we get away from all our songs sounding the same) They after all are all taking from the same source material. So while we shouldn't expect our church music to be all Bible it should still be all true. As writers and singers let's have grace for the music to lead us to God without having to have a chapter and verse referent. Songs shouldn't need a bibliography at the end. 

Songs should accurately reflect the realities of God. The realities of God should then naturally lead us to the worship and praising of God. Our posture should be of one who recognizes our need to humble ourselves because we understand who it is we stand before. Let's worship God knowing that he is vastly superior to any of our descriptive language and far more deserving than us simply singing about how he makes us feel. This is a lesson from Job, he may make us feel good or he may cause us to go through a desert, he may allow us joy or allow a tragedy, do we recognize that despite all this he is holy and good? Do we bless his name anyway? because our music should always bless his name. 

Colossians 3:16 Let the words of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 

One purpose of having the music reflect him truly is because it would be easy to not sing. It would be easy to sit and think about all the tragedy and all the suffering and all the like that affects us personally. It is very easy not to sing, or perhaps to change the tenor of the song so that it reflects how we are feeling. Now the Psalms do recognize the reality of the individual but they always come back to praise. But this is a great thing about worship. We have the choice and the invitation to leave all that behind and come and sing to the one that there is nobody else like. To the one that causes all that to fall away. Who he is brings peace in the storm. He is that arresting, he is that resetting, he is that consuming, he is that rejuvenating, he is that Good! 

I don't believe that all the singing to God in heaven we hear about is because the only thing to do up there is go to a concert. All the singing is due to simply coming face to face with God. Standing or trying to stand before the being that has so much power so as to speak and cause a universe into existence, so much knowledge to know every single one of us intimately and the workings of everything in the created order and so much love to intervene into his creation and save us from our destinies in hell will be overwhelming to say the least. You cannot help but sing. After all we love him because he first loved us.  

God has told us what is true, so let us sing what is true, because one day we will be with him who is true. Truly. 

thanks

Am I pleasing to God?

I had a discussion during a worship practice over some song lyrics which is always a good thing to do. The question of our state of being pleasing before the Lord came up. Now the preface was where does the Bible say "I am pleased with you" You know, chapter and verse? Well it doesn't that specifically because that would require God speaking to us specifically which he doesn't often do. He is usually speaking to the disciples. 

I immediately responded that the concept of being pleasing to God was all over scripture. That is a benefit of being a child of God. We all know that Jesus was the beloved Son in whom God was well pleased not us! But, I would posit that because we are in Christ, because of his precious blood and wondrous work of the cross, I can be brought near as an adopted son.  I can come boldly to the throne to receive mercy and grace because I am now a family member. 

I do not shrink away from his presence because of feelings of guilt, or unworthiness, or wonder if I am pleasing to God...not anymore. I suppose that this is part of every Christian's growing experience, to believe the promises of God. To believe that I am accepted in the beloved and will make it into his presence on that final day. This I believe is why the author of Hebrews writes without faith it is impossible to please him. (Heb 11:6) If we do not believe and live in such a way that his truths are true for us then our relationship with God will be very different than what he desire for us. 

Colossians 1 teaches that God was pleased to not only fully dwell in Christ but to do this for the purpose of reconciling the world to him. 

19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

God was pleased to make peace with us. So I have to ask did God do these things, pleasing himself, to remain not pleased with his people? This really brings to mind the idea of an angry God in heaven who scowls as his people that he was so please to reconcile himself to. It doesn't really follow does it? But I know that our sin has a tendency to trap our minds in this cage. This is basic theology that perhaps we forget when we are looking at ourselves instead of God. If God has taken the time to reconcile himself to us it follows that he wanted a relationship with us. He desires us. 

Now I understand the reasoning for this. When I first heard the song that caused such tumult I though it was perhaps a bit light to say the least but I did not think that author was intending to communicate that we were pleasing to God in a vacuum.  If the author was intending to communicate that we are so pleasing and therefore God cannot but simply recognize our merit, then yes we would have a problem. But this gets back to the filter issue I wrote about before. If I am weighed down by my past or I am thinking about someone else's lack of righteousness then my lens might cause me come to the phrase in this song and think "We are not pleasing! Haven't you read Romans?" 

This is putting the Bible at odds with itself. Yes there is no one who does good, no not even one. But this is the reality of fallen humanity not the regenerated son of Christ. Yes we as sons and daughters of Christ are people who still sin, but the glorious gift is that we can turn to him who is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness. "Jesus paid it all", to quote another song. We do not believe that we are perfect by any means but we understand that our filthy garments have been replaced by robes of righteousness. This is what makes relationship with him possible. 

See if we forget this truth then we fall into a performance based relationship. We seek relationship through obedience, however the the real way it works is because of my relationship with him that he established I desire obedience because of love for him.  

I wanted to exhort us to not walk around with our hands covering our face just in case God is pitching burning embers our way. God is pleased with us as we walk with him. This is not to say that perhaps some of us do not have some repentance and Christian discipline to do, but God is not shocked at our failures to be perfect. We should always strive to keep short accounts with God for sure. It isn't different than going to seek forgiveness on account of any transgression that we seek to repair for the sake of relationship. 

I walk with my head held high not because I know I am some awesome human specimen, but because "I know that my redeemer lives." To quote another song. I know that I have a relationship with the most powerful, most beautiful, most loving, most forgiving, most welcoming, most just, most good, most best-est God ever! My words fail to even give majesty to him, but I know that he loves me and thus I try to be pleasing to him as Paul writes many times over and thus I love him in return. 

Now I didn't have the benefit of this one in my back pocket during the discussion but I am thankful because it lead to this entry, but I am glad but the Bible does teach this:

For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.

(Psalm 149:4)

This psalm teaches that God does delight in his people, he takes pleasure in them and that he beautifies them with salvation. God did this very thing, he came and beautified his bride with his righteousness. Jesus made his bride beautiful because of his gift of redemption. Now we cannot say we are pleasing in a vacuum just as I would not say I made my wife Kimberly beautiful because of her distance to me. Only God has the power to cleanse and make beauty from ashes and this is the very thing he did.

This is not simply Israel because remember John teaches that each of us have been grafted into the promise though Christ. We are part of the people of God. We can know we are pleasing to God as much as Flanders knows he is pleasing to God.

So are we pleasing to God? Yes, but for you to believe that perhaps you might need to pray and talk with God about it and do some heart examination. Be encouraged.

thanks

Chasing the Carrot

Theology of hope and blessing are an interesting thing. Always having hope is important. It is essential to the Christian life. Looking toward the future with expectation in Christ's return is important. Looking forward to the day of our redemption is vital to Christian health. Knowing where we are going is important to any journey.

When we read the beatitudes. We recognize that most of the blessings that come about are because of attitudes towards life that are not normal to the natural man. We have to re-frame our perspective about life according to the very real world changes that come about because of the Gospel. When we look at them closely we recognize that many of the resulting blessing are in a sense kingdom come blessings. As such they will find there ultimate fulfillment in the actual kingdom of God. It is about looking to the future. It has less to do about present and immediate tactile increase.

Blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the peacemakers etc. The blessings are inheriting the earth, possessing the kingdom, seeing God. All of these have there fulfillment when Jesus returns. There may be temporary comfort and mercy but the unending guarantee of them is when we are in heaven and the new earth. Jesus is calling for a change in behavior now for the promise of what is to come. The even better thing is that with the Spirit we get to experience some of this relief now but the truest fulfillment is yet to come.

But watch Christian television for any length of time and you get the feeling that God is always around the next corner waiting to shower you with blessings and prizes. Wow the Christian life is exciting! Now I don't doubt that God blesses his people in this way but this seems to lack balance and perspective. 

I don't say this because I believe he doesn't bless but often this message is that it is just around the next corner. God has something amazing! God has the fix you have been looking for! The solution is coming, always coming. It sounds very infomercial. 

So is my problem with buying or is there some issue with UPS, a strike perhaps?

My real question in this is how do we get perspective on the lack of arriving? Do we continually swallow this line that it is still on its way? I know that it is true that the destination is always still a ways off while we are still in transit. But don't we at some point check the route again? 

This is a hard question, but I want to wrestle with hard questions. Does even asking the question undermine my faith? Would this be easier to shut up, get in line and hold my hands open for the inevitable filling all the while feeling something is wrong? What do I do when it doesn't feel inevitable?

Worse yet what do we tell people in ministry when they experience this dissonance? The easy answer is have more faith, but this doesn't help. Is it perhaps some of us are just poor waiters? Perhaps, but might a continual message of carrot chasing need tweeking?

See I want blessings as much as the next person. I don't think rose colored glasses are the answer though. We are taught to pray "if it be thy will" this needs to be applied to that blessing that we want. If the message we are hearing is continual blessing around what seems to be endless corners then maybe we need to consider that crucial phrase "if it be thy will".  

That way if checking around each corner only reveals another boulevard to be traversed it will not bring more undo stress. Jesus has another leg on this journey huh? Well get back up on the wagon and let's continue on. Perhaps at some juncture we will realize we have learned to navigate the map better and learned to actually listen to the GPS. God's, Path, of Salvation, ha!

See I believe faith is more about believing the promises of God and not so much about receiving the next item of blessing. It is hard enough to keep myself in the love of God without worrying about whether my check is coming in the mail. Worrying about the check is a real enough issue but faith is about calling us to settled truth that we are loved and accepted in the beloved. It is about moving forward with a renewed sense of urgency because I have new sense of place in the world. I am loved and cared for and forgiven and my blessed of eternity with him gives me what I need to negotiate today. This truth helps me wait for the check without calling into question his character and provision when the mail seems to get lost.

I am a Christian for the relationship with God not for the personal benefits that may come to me. This is a truth that I have to remind myself. I don't want to get so caught up with petition that I forget adoration. The relationship absolutely brings about personal benefits but I want to seek his face. When it becomes about the carrots then I become a dissatisfied bunny.

There are so many advantages and benefits to being a follower of Christ that I never want to grow discontent because I feel short changed on some temporal blessing. I want to focus on Jesus forgiving nature that positions me for a relationship that I do not deserve. When we focus on this it gives such freedom to the Christian life that I cannot stop to mourn a loss of discontentment. Along with this truth we get to inherit eternal life and live in the presence of the maker of all things.

I get to befriend God.

No carrots are worth losing my center which interrupts enjoying the lover of my soul in the now. This is preparing for the coming storms that come and having that solid foundation in Christ. This is why Jesus taught us to look to the blessing that come with eternity because that is where the real fun begins. This is not pie in the sky and self denial this is recognizing the true joy of our salvation. This way God is free to bless and withhold as he sees fit in order to develop our hearts for him.

This is how we can say "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away blessed be his name."

This way God is able to say "yes" and "no" if needs be. He gets to be God and I get to be a faithful member of his kingdom, a loving member of his family, and a happy bunny with carrot rations.

thanks